Eyes on Pierre, Week 8

Here we are, week 8 of the South Dakota Legislative session. We finished our committee work, and now we move into funding one-time projects and getting the general budget in line to vote on next week.
I had several bills that I was the prime sponsor of in the House of Representatives, which included:
SB 236 – Creating the county and township infrastructure fund for the accounting, safekeeping, and allocation of unobligated rural access infrastructure
This bill would make sure that after counties and townships receive funding from the Rural Access Infrastructure Fund, the money would be placed in an account in the county where each township is located.
Counties would then allocate monies to townships as necessary, not to exceed what has been allocated for projects within the township.
Within the State treasury, there will also be an account. established for the purpose of unused funding that is reverted when unused. This happens, beginning in 2029, and then occurs every 3 years after that. At that time, the County Auditor would send the monies to this state account, and the money would then be re-allocated to other counties or townships as needed. This prevents additional work and allows the money to be used for its intended purpose, all without having to go to the Legislature to get funding when they will use what has already been approved by the SD Legislature. We passed that, 64-1.
SB 237 – An act to require that counties provide written notice to township supervisors of conditional use applications and appeals.
This bill makes it so townships would know 10 days in advance of Conditional Use Permits or appeals in their townships, so that they may have a seat at the table if it may affect their township. This gives them notice of things that may end up damaging their roads, culverts and right of ways. We passed that 65-0
SB 214 – This bill would release all voters’ information from the Secretary of State’s website for a running five years, however, we removed legislators, judges and law enforcement officers from this site. We still will release the voters’ date, which makes us no better than all of the voters. I voted NO but the bill passed 36 to 30, we need to protect all people’s information and privacy, we shouldn’t be selective.
SB 198 – restricts the use of cell phones by students during the school day. This bill would make a rule that no school student could have a phone from the morning bell to the release bell at the end of the day. I spoke with District 22 superintendents, and they all have a policy in place dealing with this issue. I don’t think that the State of South Dakota should be involved in something like this. Let our school boards and superintendents deal with this. I voted NO.
SB 96 – this is the Governor’s tax break law. This would allow counties to impose a ½ percent sales tax, and that money must be spent on property tax relief, but only in the counties that impose this tax, so if Minnehaha imposes this tax and you visit there, you would be funding tax relief for Minnehaha county residents. Most counties will not opt for the tax increase, but everyone who visits places that do will be supporting those counties to receive property tax relief. I feel that if they want tax relief, it should be for all owner-occupied homes; we shouldn’t be required to pay someone else’s tax relief. I voted NO.
As the week ends, we will be working all weekend to prepare for next week, with major issues facing us in the State Budget.
Senator Wipf, Representative Greenfield and I will continue to work together to support District 22.
Kevin Van Diepen
District 22